Cabinet Secretary

moscow -- Top Russian officials on Friday publicly rejected a new proposal personally presented by two senior U.S. Cabinet secretaries aimed at persuading Moscow to withdraw its objections to a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Moscow's rebuff was made in substance and tone, with President Vladimir V. Putin coming close to openly ridiculing the antimissile system and the Russian foreign minister saying the U.S.

The White House bills it as a "listening tour," a chance for President Obama's Cabinet to get out of Washington and hear what's on the minds of rural voters around the country. En route, the White House is making sure it reaches voters in crucial swing districts.

President Obama, whose healthcare and economic stimulus initiatives threaten to dramatically inflate the federal budget deficit, heralded a new push Saturday to cut wasteful spending in Washington. The president said that in coming weeks he would announce the elimination of "dozens of government programs." And he said he would ask his Cabinet secretaries on Monday for specific proposals to slash their departments' budgets, promising there would be "no sacred cows and no pet projects."

Former Republican Cabinet secretary Jack F. Kemp faced an unenthusiastic and sometimes angry audience at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace on Wednesday as he defended his condemnation of Proposition 187, the immigration measure on the Nov. 8 state ballot. In his first public discussion of his opposition to Proposition 187, Kemp told the disagreeing audience that he could not, in good conscience, support a measure that would "turn teachers and nurses into agents of the INS."

Japan's top government spokesman said Friday that the country's leadership was overwhelmed by last week's earthquake and tsunami, which slowed its ability to respond to the following humanitarian crisis and nuclear emergency. "The unprecedented scale of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, frankly speaking, were among many things that happened that had not been anticipated under our disaster management contingency plans," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, according to the Associated Press.

Japan's Red Cross has collected more than $1 billion in the first three weeks after the massive earthquake and tsunami but has yet to distribute any funds directly to victims, prompting Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano to urge Sunday that the process be accelerated. Meanwhile, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant reported no significant progress in stopping the leak of radioactive water into the sea. Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials think the leak has been coming from a concrete pit holding power cables near reactor No. 2, and attempted Sunday to seal a crack there with a special polymer.

Former Cabinet secretary Jack Kemp, the leading Republican proponent of tax incentives to revitalize inner cities, said Friday that he is ready to work with Los Angeles and the new Republican majority in Congress to seek approval for a new and improved urban aid package to help Los Angeles and other cities. "I'm going to do what I can to pursue support in the Republican Congress for my original idea of urban aid," Kemp said in an interview.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, responding to lawmakers' complaints that President Clinton's health care reform legislation has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill, said Tuesday that the White House is taking another look at the plan's widely challenged cost estimates.

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in intensive care, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki has temporarily assumed his duties, Aoki announced today. Aoki gave scant details about Obuchi's medical condition, except to say that the 62-year-old Japanese leader had been conscious about 7 p.m. Sunday, when he was able to speak without difficulty and told Aoki to take over if he were unable to leave the hospital immediately.

The Schwarzenegger administration is proposing to consolidate parts of California's diffuse energy bureaucracy in an effort to avert blackouts and other potential crises, aides said Monday. The governor wants to create a new Cabinet-level position of energy secretary to formulate policy and respond to disasters. The state's plethora of existing energy panels and agencies has been widely criticized as duplicative and fragmented.